What if Abraham Lincoln LOST the election of 1860?

It's Mr. Beat's first alternate history video he's ever made. What if Stephen Douglas won the presidential election of 1860 instead of Abraham Lincoln? Eh?

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@AlternateHistoryHub's video

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The real election of 1860

Ranked choice voting, explained

And EVERY presidential election in American history

Produced by Matt Beat. All images and video by Matt Beat, used under fair use guidelines, or found in the public domain. Music by @ElectricNeedleRoom(Mr. Beat's band) and @corbynkites8006.

Here's an annotated script with footnotes:

Sources/further reading:

Defender of the Union by Gerald M. Capers

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What if Abraham Lincoln didn't win the election of 1860?

Instead, let’s say Lincoln’s old debating buddy, the Illinois U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas, won the election. It’s not that wild of an idea, actually. See all those blue counties? He won those, but in A LOT of those green, yellow, and red counties, I’d argue he was the second choice. In fact, while he finished fourth in the electoral college, getting just 12 electoral votes, he finished second in the popular vote. Now, while we don’t have definitive evidence that Douglas was the second choice of a lot of voters in 1860, I can certainly infer based on that and other evidence that he would have been a lot of people’s second choice. Now I’m a big fan of ranked choice voting…if you don’t know how ranked choice voting works, I did make a video about it, which I’ve linked below. But…simply put, it’s a way to rank ALL the candidates so you don’t just have a say on ONE candidate but ALL OF THEM. With ranked choice voting, I think there’s a GOOD chance Douglas would have won. He was likely the second choice to most Breckenridge and Bell supporters.

So let’s do this, partner.

Mr. Beat presents…

Alternate American History

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